Step one would be to acknowledge that many of the criticisms of religion are merely criticisms of human nature itself, as secular ideologies and individuals fail in the same sorts of ways by the professed moral standards of most secular individuals. The next would be for for secular thinkers to admit that (from an anthropological perspective) their atheistic philosophies are more or less proto-religions and admit to taking certain value judgements and stances about reality on faith.

The issue is, almost no secular thinker comes away from admitting those two honestly and then stays within the purely secular realm for very long.

It was very possible to be an intelligent introspective atheist when the consequences of that stance were not on display so readily. The "forward thinkers" who might have been capable of forming secular religions are instead embracing established faiths. Perhaps it's an issue like attempting to create life from scratch again. Hard to do when existing life just crowds it out. It would take dedicated committed atheists, admitting that they are intentionally attempting to establish a secular religion as a sort of memetic symbiote to fill the same space as religion, but when you're biggest rallying cry for converts is, "People don't need religion!" it's neigh impossible to do.